The Bugle - 8 September 2006
In news this week
Regional NRM group stories
Government updates
- Troops rally for weed-busting campaign
- Pilot program uses the market to protect natural resources
- Protecting our spectacular rangelands
- Record amount of data submitted for Regional Programs Report
Wetlands Programme updates
Natural resources news
- Hands-on students rewarded for environmental efforts
- Australia's native animals receive a $592,900 helping hand on National Threatened Species Day
- Elders joins Landcare to boost farming
Ghost net guitar strap hits the right note
A guitar strap made from bits of ghost net was judged the winner of a competition to find creative uses for the deadly marine rubbish.
The Carpentaria Ghost Net Programme's competition was sponsored by Qantas and judged at the Garma Festival at Gulkula near the township of Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory.
Entrants were given the challenge to design something from recovered ghost nets that would be practical and could be sold by Indigenous groups from around the Gulf of Carpentaria that participate in the programme.
Twenty-six designs were received from around Australia and overseas. The winning entry from Chantal Corder of Sydney was a guitar strap created by weaving pieces of ghost nets together. One of the judges, Northern Territory MP Barbara McCarthy, said Chantal was given first prize for the creativity and practicality of the design and the way in which the weaving could be adapted to other products like belts and place mats.
Qantas will fly Chantal on a number of visits to various communities around the Gulf so she can teach her weaving technique to people within the communities that can then produce products for commercial sale.
The success of this competition demonstrates the add-on benefits of the Carpentaria Ghost Net Programme – it's much more than just a clean-up.
Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been discarded at sea and drift with the currents trapping marine fauna, endangering shipping and washing up on the shores around the Gulf of Carpentaria.
See the Ghost nets website for more info about the program.
Managing Indigenous fish traps
The Mackay Whitsunday Natural Resource Management Group is working with the Mackay Whitsunday Traditional Owner Reference Group to create a management plan for the region's Aboriginal fish traps.
The Indigenous groups that these fish traps are significant to are BBKY (Barada Barna Kabalbara Yetimarla), Gia, Ngaro, Koinjmal, Yuibera and Wiri. The need for this project was identified when Traditional Owners expressed concern about the preservation and conservation of fish traps that were being moved and overgrown.
This project will create a management plan for the fish traps in the region. Fish traps will be recorded, researched and surveyed.
If you would like to be involved or know of any fish traps in the region, please contact the Aboriginal Land Management Facilitator, Regina Bernard on 4957 6945.
Troops rally for weed-busting campaign
Community and school groups are ganging up against weeds in their area next month as part of Queensland’s role in national Weedbuster week.
Weedbuster is a grass roots, community-based program in which people work with federal, state and local governments to battle environmental weeds.
This year’s campaign is themed Fighting the weed invaders.
"Weeds are bad news for Queensland," Weedbuster state coordinator Brett Davis said.
"They cost the state more than $600 million each year in lost production or money spent on weed control. Australia–wide, that adds up to $4 billion," he said.
Activities to fight the weed invaders in Queensland include groups organising clean-ups on farm and bushland and along creek banks.
Other events - which will highlight what is at stake - will include weed identification walks, field days, displays in libraries, shopping centres and council offices, seminars and award presentations.
Mr Davis said there were more than 2,700 species of environmental weeds in Australia.
"Many started as innocent-looking garden ornamentals or stock feeds and have since taken over native vegetation,'' he said.
"Six of Australia’s worst invasive weeds have degraded more than 20 million hectares of grazing and natural lands."
Weeds affected human and animal health, the economy, the environment and its biodiversity, water quality, the landscape and people's enjoyment of the land, and also posed a fire hazard.
"Weeds know no borders. Highly invasive weeds threaten all parts of Australia including grazing lands, waterways, national parks and urban environments," he said.
Weedbuster week is held across Queensland from 8 to 15 October. For more information email weedbuster@nrm.qld.gov.au or visit www.nrm.qld.gov.au/pests or www.weedbusters.info.
Pilot program uses the market to protect natural resources
The National Market Based Instruments Pilot Program was established to explore and trial the use of market-like approaches to the management of natural resources and the environment.
The aim of the pilot program was to see if and how MBIs could be used to improve the way natural resources are managed. The program was jointly funded by the Australian and state governments. The Queensland Government component of the funding was provided by the Social and Economic State Level Investment Project SE05 program.
A report has been produced to summarise the pilot programs, with an emphasis on those that used competitive tenders. Considerations for the use of market-based instruments by regional NRM groups in Queensland are also provided.
The report can be downloaded from the regional NRM web site and information about designing and selecting incentives is also available from this site. For more information, contact Beth Clouston.
Protecting our spectacular rangelands
The vast rangelands that cover much of Australia's mainland will be better managed with a new series of guides launched by the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell.
Senator Campbell said the new guides, Managing for Biodiversity in the Rangelands, were an important practical tool to help manage the varied land use and environmental challenges across Australia.
"Rangelands cover more than 75 per cent of Australia's landmass, and it is vital we understand how to manage them sustainably," Senator Campbell said.
The scale and terrain of our rangelands is incredibly diverse, including the vast Mitchell grass plains of western Queensland; eucalypt woodland savannas stretching across the Top End from Cape York to the Kimberley; spinifex grasslands and red dunes of the arid centre, and mulga and saltbush country in western New South Wales and South Australia.
"The rangelands are home to some of our most amazing animals and plants and distinctive world renowned landscapes. They help support some of Australia's most productive industries, including mining, tourism, and beef, sheep and wool production," Senator Campbell said.
The guides cover management of fire, weeds, total grazing pressure; tools for assessing financial and environmental impacts of management options; and industry guidelines for sustainability. The Australian Government uses a $1.6 million investment in the Australian Collaborative Rangelands Information System to monitor change in the rangelands. This partnership between governments compiles data on the nature and extent of environmental change in the rangelands to improve our understanding of the drivers of change and benefit rangelands managers.
The Managing for Biodiversity in the Rangelands series can be downloaded from the Department of Environment and Heritage web site.
Record amount of data submitted for Regional Programs Report
The Queensland Government has submitted the data collected from regional NRM groups during the recent performance reporting period to the Australian Government for inclusion in the National 2005-06 Regional Programs Report.
There was a large increase in the quality of data and information, and a record amount of data was analysed. This represents a significant investment of time and energy from a range of NRM officers across Queensland
The information is important because it provides an accurate account of regional NRM groups' contributions to on-ground works, planning, capacity building, monitoring and other activities.
For people who like stats, here's some trivia that shows what a big job the analysis was:
- 184 800 cells (5,600 rows by 33 columns) of output data
- 51 030 cells (1701 rows by 30 columns) of target data
- 36 600 cells (470 rows by 77 columns) of Activity details and expenditure
- Total = 272,430 cells
- The total expenditure in 2005-06 was $61,940,765
Watch this space for further updates on the outcomes and achievements.
The Regional Programs Report
The Regional Programs Report represents the combined progress report to the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council on the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality and the regional component of the Natural Heritage Trust.
It summarises the remarkable developments occurring through the delivery of the NAP and the regional component of the Natural Heritage Trust across Australia's 56 NRM regions.
The report provides information about expenditure, outputs and progress toward targets in each of the 56 NRM regions.
Key highlights from the 2005-06 outputs report include:
- Rehabilitation, enhancement or protection of 6,668,000ha of vegetation
- 756,000ha of pest plant and 5,385,000ha of pest animal control measures
- 5,280ha of land where improved irrigation practices have been adopted by 26 landholders
- Over 350 new or improved natural resource monitoring programs
- 57 conservation agreements protecting over 5780 hectares.
For more info, contact Nicole Blackett on 3224 2154.
Wetlands issues on the agenda for new EPA divisional leader
Tony Roberts has joined the Environmental Protection Agency as the Executive Director of the Planning Division, which co-ordinates the Queensland Wetlands Programme at a State level.
Mr Roberts comes to the EPA from the Department of Premier and Cabinet, where he held senior executive positions.
He has held senior positions in the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, EPA and Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Mr Roberts has been involved in high-level natural resource management and environmental policy in Queenslands and has previously been a long-standing member of the Joint Queensland and Australian Government NRM Steering Committee (JSC), the Reef Intergovernmental Operational Committee (IOC).
Hands-on students rewarded for environmental efforts
Environmentally aware students from Mirboo North Primary School in Victoria and Huonville Primary School in Tasmania will spend National Threatened Species Day celebrating their win in the national category of the 2006 Hands on for Habitat Awards.
Jones Hill State School and Kelvin Grove State College won the Queensland State awards, with McDowall State School being highly commended.
The announcement of this year's winning schools was made by Australian Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell, at a special ceremony at Parliament House this week.
Hands on for Habitat is a national community education and awareness program jointly supported by the Australian Government and Cadbury. Primary school students learn about Australia’s threatened plants and animals and the habitat that supports them and then create artworks about threatened species to compete in the awards.
Each of the national winners will receive $4,000 for an environmental makeover and a digital camera package, while state winners receive a $200 gift voucher for native plants. All winners receive a framed National Threatened Species Day poster featuring their artwork, as well as Cadbury premium prize packs.
For more information and to request free National Threatened Species Day posters and stickers featuring the winning entries, visit the DEH web site or contact the Department of the Environment and Heritage Community Information Unit via email or freecall 1800 803 772.
Read the Minister's media release and see the list of winners
Australia's native animals receive a $592,900 helping hand on National Threatened Species Day
The Forty-spotted Pardalote, Macquarie Perth and Leadbeater's Possum will all breathe easier with the announcement that they and other threatened animals and plants will benefit from Australian Government funding to community groups around the country.
Australian Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell joined with WWF-Australia program leader, Dr Nicola Markus to announce the $592,900 Threatened Species Network Community Grants.
"This funding means that the future of some of Australia's most precious threatened plants and animals will be a little more assured," Senator Campbell said.
"The grants will allow community groups to undertake 33 on-ground projects to better the survival chances of 68 threatened species and ecological communities," Dr Markus said.
The grants form part of the joint Australian Government and WWF-Australia Threatened Species Network. Over the past eight years the Government has provided more than $4 million for about 300 projects across the country as part of the programme.
Senator Campbell and Dr Markus said that other grants would include:
- $12,122 to reduce the threat of woody weed invasion in the Fleurieu Peninsula Swamps, SA;
- $11,400 to address the serious decline of the Macquarie Perch, NSW;
- $26,594 to manage the habitat of the endangered Forty-spotted Pardalote on Bruny Island, Tas;
- $14,150 to construct nest boxes as replacement habitat for the Leadbeater's Possum, Vic; and
- $15,750 to conserve threatened flora on the Stanthorpe Plateau, QLD.
Elders joins Landcare to boost farming
The decision by agribusiness giant Elders to contribute $2.5 million to Landcare was a welcome and generous commitment to care for the Australian landscape, Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry Minister Peter McGauran said today.
Mr McGauran said Landcare was the farmer led, iconic, pioneer of environmental action in Australia and richly deserved support from every quarter to continue and expand its work.
"This move by Elders is another example of the growing recognition that managing the Australian landscape is, and should be, a very widely shared responsibility," Mr McGauran said.
Read the Minister's media statement
Thought for the week
One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade.
Chinese Proverb
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To view past issues of The Bugle visit the regional NRM web site.
The Bugle is a weekly newsletter published by Community Partnerships, the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Water, highlighting regional NRM activities around Queensland.
Last updated 07 September 2006